I’ve started on the wipers for my 39 Packard custom. Nothing was salvageable off the original vacuum setup or mechanism. I got chain operated towers from a 39 Cadillac Sixty Special. Got a two speed electric motor in my parts pile. The original vacuum motor joggled like a seesaw back and forth whereas the electric motor goes round and round. I want to have the wipers park facing the middle of the screen and swing outward. The electric motor going round and round means that the wipers will go left to right or right to left in unison. It means I have to make a seperate swing arm on one of the arms to reverse the swing. Hard to explain but those who know what I’m talking about will understand. Just curious to see what anyone has done before I commit to making something.
On my 49 Dodge truck, my wipers park all the way to the outer edge of the windshield because it gives me better sight when they are parked. I don't have to look past both center parked wipers. I also used a center pivot like you drew, but I ran the arm from the motor to the lower pivot point on the center pivot. If you want the wipers to park at the center, you would attach the motor rod to the top of the center pivot. Then the linkage to both wiper points would be directly from the center pivot. Its a lot easier to do the wiper points directly to the center pivot in a confined area, and also allows you to provide for a non-flat windshield, the center pivot points can be angled to account for a two piece windshield like my truck has. When you make that center pivot, its center needs to have a good sealed bearing with a solid mounting bracket, there is a lot of load on the center point when the wipers are functioning for a long time, or if the gl*** is nearly dry. I think you will find that the center pivot needs to be on the same line as the two wiper posts. That linkage needs to be pretty straight to work. The linkage can be bent around stuff, but the the connections need to be pretty straight between the post arm ends, the center of the center pivot, and the center of the motor transmission. As you set up your linkage, pay careful attention to be sure all the pivot points clear everything. It took an amazing amount of time to create those 3 simple linkage rods. Pictures: Pic 1 is the most clear shot I have of my center pivot, the motor location, and the p***enger side wiper mount, and connected linkage, from under the dash. Pic 2 is the center pivot in the park position. The center bolt is through a bracket welded to the cowl. The lower center bracket has both the linkage from the motor (the front arm) and barely visible is the linkage to the right side wiper, which is bolted to the same bolt as the linkage from the motor, but on the back side of the pivot arm. Pic 3 is the right side wiper post and arm, in the park position (towards the outer part of the windshield). the rust colored rod below the wiper is the linkage to the motor, which is in the extreme right lower corner of the pic. The motor and the pivot linkages need to be pretty near in line with each other or the linkage will bind when in operation. Pic 4 is the center pivot again, but this time the wipers would be at the other extreme of the linkage movement. In real life the length of the wiper pivot ***embly and the length of the linkage between the center pivot point and where the wiper linkage attaches is the same length. Changing those lengths really messes up the wiper movement. Also, compare the amount of movement the linkage mounting point move in the swing of the linkage. Pic 5 is the right side wiper post again, with the wiper at the other extreme of the linkage travel. Here you can also see the motor and the motor linkage. The physical distance between those two linkage rods is about an inch apart. There are no pictures of the left side wiper post or linkage, its up pretty high on the cowl, and behind the instrument cluster, very hard to get pictures, but the process is the same. After a few failed attempts to determine the linkage and the positioning of everything, I ended up building the wiper operation in mock up on a piece of wood using actual lengths of pivot arms and linkage based on the mounting positions of the wiper post spacing. Then I made a hand version of the wiper motor circle and could run everything through a hand operation. I worked at getting the left side wiper to function first, then after it worked smoothly, I worked on the right side linkage. After the mock up, I built and mounted the center pivot, then positioned the motor, and made the left side wiper linkage and made sure it functioned correctly. There was very little room to make any adjustments on the left side. Then I made the parts for the right side. I also ended up making my own wiper arms. I'm using readily available 12" wiper blades. You may want to position your wipers on you ride and park the wipers at the place they cause the least amount of obstruction to your vision when they are not in use. In real life, my wipers work great in normal and heavy rain, but if its just a real light drizzle, they will shutter a bit on the dry gl***. I'm using higher tension wiper arms that hold the blades on the gl*** firmly and that may be cause of my shutter. I turn them on for a stroke or two and shut them off again in light drizzle. Gene
That's more or less what I'd do. I would drive just the pivot with the motor, connect both arms to the pivot arm (one on top, the other on the bottom) to reduce stress on the one arm. Packaging will be the worst of it, but doing it that way you can move the motor around if needed. edit: Yeah, what Gene shows... LOLOL
I'll add one more thing to this. These are called 'wiper transmissions' and some I've seen have a 'master bracket' that locates everything into an ***embly, then this ***embly installs as a unit. That reduces strain on the sheetmetal and may actually make mounting easier. Instead of needing sturdy mounts for each component, you'll only need two or three mounts on the body shell itself, with the bracket taking the strain for the rest.
My 46 Olds used this OEM setup originally to produce the motions required, one wiper sweeps left whilst the other wiper sweeps right and vice versa. I swapped out the vacuum motor for a Newport Wipers 12 v unit and connect the arms to the windshield wiper transmissions. Larger bodies used cable driven system with wires and rollers to produce identical motion. A few years ago a friend set up his wipers using OEM transmission towers and a Hyundai 12v wiper. He had to fabricate central wiper motor pivot arm and motor support bracket. Some light gauge steel rod (3/16"), easily bent to suit, with threaded carburetor style adjustable ball ends produced the required full sweep on each side with the added bonus of incorporating the park feature allowing both wiper arms to drop to the lower edge of the screen when motor was switched off.
Well good news. All good advice so thanks. I pulled the Motor and linkage out of a Saab and reconfigured the linkage a little. I’m halfway there. Mounted in the cowl. Just got to Mate the original arms attached to the Towers to the Saab arms. I’ll get some threaded Rod so I can adjust them. I had to work out the back and forth travel of the Cadillac chain drive towers and it was 40mm . That’s what I’ve also achieved with the Modified Saab mech. I’m hopeful that by the weekend they should be operational. Worked back late and forgot to take a pic. I’ll do so shortly.
I tried making my own wiper transmission years ago and discovered that since the links on the wipers are very short, it is hard to make both exactly the same length.
Yes gold mountain . I discovered that yesterday. I’ve cut and shut and tracked everything up. Need to quietly ***emble it all and check and recheck before I put power to it.
I've set up wiper systems from scratch on 5 different vehicles now, all are slightly different, and all were a pita to get the linkage correct. The systems get better with more practice. The one in my 49 works so much better then that 1st one I did. You start with a plan, and adjust it from there. Gene
That is far too complicated............ Use a reciprocating motor similar to what Newport use. They are a Boat wiper motor that you can swap around so it will park on either the left or right. You can also alter the "sweep" internally up to about 135 deg And they are 2 speed Then you make an 180deg crank arm [1 side for left and one side for right] which works because it doesn't rotate 360 deg You can also get Left and Right offset About $130 on Ebay Australia. If you're the "king of cheap" [like me] and like fabricating your own things, seriously consider cannibalizing a rear wiper motor from a SW tailgate [they reciprocate as well]
Can get them for $109 here in town (where Cadmad also lives.) I talked about the boat shop with him yesterday and I'd say he's looked at them, then looked at the wrecked SAAB and took up the no money challenge.
Most wagon tailgate wiper motors reciprocate and park internally [the wiper shaft is usually direct off the motor]
The problem with the tailgate units is that they are one speed. For my current car, I'm using a reciprocating motor made by American Bosch that came from a motor home.
Pretty good suggestions from everybody that's posted except this one. Whether driving in the rain or not around here means that when one of the hundreds of trucks pulling tubs of chicken parts p***es you, you better have working wipers and washers. That chicken juice and grease slops onto the floor of the truck and leaks out the back doors all over your car. It's really hard to see through.
I did a few wiper swaps in the 80s using Lucas wipers from MGs or Triumphs. They're very adaptable. Don't let the name Lucas scare you off. They are very reliable
Pics will follow shortly but the Saab unit made things a lot easier because the pivot points are attached to a Rod attached to the motor. So everything is in a static unit that can be pulled as a complete unit. As well because my windscreen is heavily leaned the motor has to be leaned although the pivots have a flexible ball joint to take up any alignment issues. I’ve got everything in position. Got some Booker rod nuts yesterday arvo for the threaded rod. We’ll weld them onto the arms to accept the wiper arms. First test run should be tomorrow.
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